Harold Lloyd

Among the many highlights of AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi is the Youth and Family Programming section, which brings unique films and events to audiences ofall ages and extends AFI’s educational mission to build passion for the art form by cultivating young movie fans and future film artists.

This weekend’s Youth and Family presentation of Harold Lloyd’s 1923 silent classic SAFETY LAST! will give younger audiences a perfect introduction to the legendary director/actor and his endearingly death-defying brand of comedy.

The screening, happening at the El Capitan Theatre this Saturday, November 7, will be accompanied by an exciting live DJ re-score from Thomas Golubić, a Grammy-nominated music supervisor and former KCRW DJ whose impressive credits include BREAKING BAD, THE WALKING DEAD and SIX FEET UNDER.  His SAFETY LAST! re-score will include live instruments and samples by Mocean Worker, and songs by The Avalanches, the Beastie Boys, James Brown and Lemon Jelly, among others.

This one-of-a-kind film experience is part of the efforts of Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, to put him “in different environments, for younger people and to elevate him into the mainstream so that he’s not just pigeonholed into the silent theater,” as she told AFI.

“My grandfather was very forward-minded about having music with his films and not just showing them with an organ. He wasn’t wild about showing his films with a piano in any way, either. He really believed that a music score could really bring the whole thing to life.”

In SAFETY LAST!, which holds a place on AFI’S 100 Years…100 Thrills list, Harold Lloyd plays a small–town bumpkin haplessly trying to get by in the big city. When he finds a job as a department store clerk, he brainstorms a breathless publicity stunt to draw attention to the store.

“People who haven’t seen SAFETY LAST! are in for a treat because, while getting younger people into see a silent movie sometimes is very hard, Harold’s persona is so modern,” said Suzanne Lloyd, who set up the Harold Lloyd Foundation in her grandfather’s honor after he died in 1971.